THE
STREET HAWKER HAS A STORY
How would we define
employment?
Is it to carry ‘loads’
going about from one street to another or from one household to another ; or
going to the office to engage in formal proceedings?
There is nothing wrong
with one’s work except activities against human rights and the laws of the
country. There is nothing wrong with farming, fishing, masonry, sales agent and
many others, which will earn one a living; but the challenge in our part of the
world is the branding associated to certain kinds of work.
The literacy in Africa (Ghana)
is developing gradually but still cannot override the rate of the people in the
informal sector. Very often, the government does not concentrate on the
informal sector only during elections.
This piece brings to
light the dilemma experienced by the street hawker. The living conditions of
the street hawker is very deplorable. Most often, we see them on the streets
but have a narrow idea of how they survive.
Is hawking the only way
out or there can be a substitute which will not endanger the lives of some citizens
to be running helter-skelter after vehicles?
Do we have Ministers of
State in charge of employment, health and housing? Do they even care about
these lovely citizens who sleep on the streets, in front of stores, overheads
and market squares?
Should their informal
state deprive them from all benefits as citizens? Will they hawk all the days
of their lives? Will their future be limited because they are carrying all
kinds of things to eke out a living?
Hawkers are not people to be looked down upon.
It is the neglect of the responsibilities of some ‘leaders’ which has resulted
in that fate of theirs.
I believe each and
everyone is personally responsible for the outcome of his or her life, but there
are moments where leaders should take the initiative in structuring procedures
and activities to make life meaningful to these street hawkers.
Our brothers and sisters
on the streets have great destinies and very shortly their predicaments will be
a thing of the past. Among these street hawkers are potential personalities to
help rewrite the story of Africa.
Samuel Elijah Boateng
President, The Central
Focus
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